After Forever Read Free Page B

interested in this.”
    It was turned to the page about the family
who had disappeared and there, staring back at me through the black
and white photo was Phillip. I tried to pick it up to look at it
closer, but it fell through my stiff and cracking fingers and pages
scattered across the floor. Mallie laughed at my complete
helplessness while she walked out of my room.
    The next few hours were the worst of my
life. Visions of my brother and sister vied for prominence in my
thoughts against visions of my mother. The truth was, when she had
gotten sick, there was no one to work and no money to come in. So I
had done what I had needed to do. I stole. Food, money, toothpaste.
Whatever those kids had needed, I had gotten for them. Phillip
called me a hero… the judge had called me a criminal.
    Now, with me tucked away in this body and
this place, I couldn’t help wondering what was happening to them
and how they were managing without me. I knew that Marcie and her
family would care for them. At least until my mom was released from
the hospital… if she was released…. But that didn’t ease my fears
or the desperation I felt trying to choke me.
    Then, one morning after a night of restless
sleeping, something amazing happened. Just as the morning sun began
to rise and throw my room into a rainbow of pinks, oranges, and
yellows, my body began to tingle and come to life. I threw the
covers off of my bed and ran to the mirror. My own normal face
stared back at me.
    Heart practically beating through my chest,
I tried opening my door. It opened. I took a deep breath to give
myself courage, certain that I would run right into Mallie. I was
wrong. It was like I was in another place completely. I was inside
my dream. Only instead of seeing Phillip outside of this stone
mansion, I was greeted by the faces of hundreds of people.
    One of the ladies from the bus smiled
sweetly at me from a few feet away. “Welcome Rory, we knew you’d
come.”
    “Is this a dream?”
    She shook her head and a few of the other
people chuckled. “No. This is our home.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    She walked forward and put her arm around my
shoulder. “We are under a magic spell that keeps us trapped in an
almost paralyzed state. You are the only person who can save
us.”
    I backed away from her. “No. You’ve got the
wrong person.”
    The other lady from the bus moved forward
from the crowd. “No, Rory, we don’t. Phillip chose you to be our
hero. He believes in you… and so do we.” She gestured to the crowd
and I began to see familiar faces and features on faces. Every
person whose room I had been cleaning for weeks now, was here. Just
like me, they were all trapped. This couldn’t be real. Things like
this didn’t happen in real life.
    I gulped. “I don’t know what to do.”
    She walked me to the front door of the
castle like mansion. “You will.”
    Just like that first day in the assisted
living home, the door opened by itself. Mesmerized, I walked over
the threshold and then jumped when the door slammed behind me. It
was disconcerting to be alone after having so many eyes trained on
me outside. I tried to open the door and go back out there… back to
safety, but it wouldn’t budge.
    “Follow your heart Rory, and you’ll find the
way.”
    I turned back toward the interior of the
front room and found myself looking at Miss Merriweather. Only she
didn’t look like the nurse I had met that first day. She looked…
magical… youthful almost and beautiful.
    “Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”
    She smiled sadly, “you had to find it for
yourself.”
    The only light in the room was from candles
which threw shadows around the room that seemed to shift and
shimmer ominously. “This is crazy.”
    “There is magic in everything, Rory, you
just have to decide if you are going to embrace it or run from
it.”
    I took a step forward, remembering how it
had felt in Phillips arms. How I had never felt like I had belonged
anywhere as